1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to information retrieval in a computer network. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and computer program product for extending the capabilities of an arbitrary web server in the network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The World Wide Web is the Internet's multimedia information retrieval system. In the Web environment, client machines effect transactions to Web servers using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is a known application protocol providing users access to files (e.g., text, graphics, images, sound, video, etc.) using a standard page description language known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML provides basic document formatting and allows the developer to specify “links” to other servers and files. In the Internet paradigm, a network path to a server is identified by a so-called Uniform Resource Locator (URL) having a special syntax for defining a network connection. Use of an HTML-compatible browser (e.g., Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer) at a client machine involves specification of a link via the URL. In response, the client makes a request to the server identified in the link and, in return, receives in return a document or other object formatted according to HTML. A collection of documents supported on a Web server is sometimes referred to as a Web site.
Recently, the computer industry has sought to add computer processing and communications capabilities to devices other than what would normally be considered a traditional computer. Such devices are quite varied and include, for example, personal digital assistants (PDAs), business organizers (e.g., IBM® WorkPad®, the 3Com® PalmPilot®, and the like), smartphones, cellular phones, desktop screen phones, in-vehicle devices, vending machines, kiosks, vehicle traffic lights, parking meters, computer peripherals (such as printers, fax machines, and the like), other handheld devices, and the like. For convenience, these devices, as a class, are sometimes referred to as “pervasive computing” clients as they are devices that are designed to be connected to servers in a computer network and used for computing purposes regardless of their location.
Arbitrary web servers in a computer network, however, often cannot interoperate with pervasive computing clients. In particular, a given client may require a specific action be taken for successful delivery or display of given content, and such action may not be recognized by the web server that receives the client request. Indeed, in many cases, the web server may not even have the capability of recognizing the client device that initiates the request.
Thus, there is a need in the art to enable an arbitrary web server in a computer network to respond to a given client request even if the server does not recognize the client or otherwise have the capability of responding to the request. The present invention solves this problem.